Wednesday November 25, 2009

Colorado Music Festival Orchestra
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Calin Lupanu, violin
Roberto Sierra: Fandangos 10:17
Camille Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op.61 30:08 (7/13/07)
Also, Charley anticipates the Ft. Collins Symphony's concert Saturday.
Ellen Zwilich: Concerto Grosso 1985
New York Philharmonic/ Zubin Mehta
New World 372 1-5 14:09


Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Violin Concerto No. 3 in B
minor, Opus 61
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Andantino quasi allegretto
III. Molto moderato e maestoso; Allegro non troppo

Every Monday evening, musicians would gather at Saint-Saëns's house for informal musicales. Later the composer recalled: ``Those who used to come to my musical evenings in the old days have not forgotten the distinction my celebrated friend used to lend them, a distinction such that for several years no other violinist would agree to play at my house. All were terrified at the idea of being compared with him. He distinguished himself not only by his talent but also by his wit and the inexhaustible verve of his conversation, which was ever lively and much to be relished.''
Saint-Saëns was talking about the Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate, for who he wrote his Third Violin Concerto. Sarasate introduced the work at one of Saint-Saëns's Monday evenings in 1880. The first public performance, again with Sarasate as soloist, took place in Paris on January 2, 1881.
Biographer James Harding writes: ``It begins with a powerful searching theme which, in Sarasate's hands, was perfectly contrasted with the movement's second motif, one of meditative tenderness. Then comes a voluptuously sweet barcarolle, and after a wide-ranging cadenza the concerto ends with an airily triumphant allegro. More than any of Saint-Saëns's other works for the violin, it shows the professional benefit he reaped from his lifelong partnership with Sarasate who revealed to him, as no one else could, the secrets of the instrument's resources.''
The score calls for solo violin, piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani and strings.